MEPs voting to shield themselves from investigation? Sadly, that’s all too typical

Politicians across the spectrum will go to great lengths to shield themselves from public scrutiny. When things unravel, they typically blame others, claim innocence, or resort to witch-hunt rhetoric that would make Donald Trump blush.

The far-right is particularly adept at this, and in the European Parliament it can count on strong allies in the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP). For some, scrutiny and accountability, even from political peers, is a price too high to pay especially when EU funds are at stake.

The spectacle was on full display earlier this week in the parliament’s budgetary control committee. At issue was €276,967 in EU funds that an internal audit found had been misspent by the Patriots for Europe group (PfE), the hard-right outfit led by France’s Jordan Bardella.

The Patriots had reportedly awarded contracts to companies with ties to their national party members, in breach of EU rules.

But rather than referring the case to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the committee opted to have PfE repay the sum – effectively closing the file.

Along with the far-right, the vote on Tuesday (14 July) was pushed through by the centre-right European People’s Party.

Transparency International EU, a Brussels-based organisation, has since submitted a complaint with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“The repeated misuse of EU taxpayers’ money by far-right political groups in the parliament has gone on far too long,” said Nick Aiossa, director at Transparency International EU, in a press statement.

Aiossa says they also submitted the complaint in the absence of adequate action by the European Parliament.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is already investigating the Patriots predecessor, the Identity and Democracy (ID) for allegedly misspending some €4.3m in taxpayer money.

The Patriots say the investigation amounts to a politically-motivated attack, noting only 21 of its 85 MEPs previously belonged to ID. But the argument was also put forward by Tamas Deutsch, a Hungarian politician from the Fidesz party, which has been accused of widespread corruption of EU funds in Hungary.

The controversy comes even as Bardella's boss Marine Le Pen, and future French presidential hopeful, was convicted earlier this month for embezzling millions in European Parliament funds to finance her own national political party. She now has to wear an electronic tag.

The European Parliament prefers to have such issues swept under the carpet, terrified of repeating any reputational damage it suffered when its vice-president was caught by the Belgian police with a suitcase full of Qatari and Moroccan cash.